


there is no sun when there's no one

by clean



Category: Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: Episode: s02e21 Chapter Thirty-Four: Judgement Night, Gen, Vignette
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-11
Updated: 2018-05-11
Packaged: 2019-05-05 04:55:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 603
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14609817
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/clean/pseuds/clean
Summary: Four teenagers, spread out through a small town in New York, deal with the aftermath of one night of destruction.





	there is no sun when there's no one

**Author's Note:**

> VERY very obviously, spoilers from 2x21. but who knows how much of this will be canon next week.

The black hood lifts his gun and Archie feels time stop. Everything stops. He’s frozen, staring down the barrel of the gun that’s about to kill his father.

He pushes him, hard, but the bullet, traveling in slow motion, stil hits him.

He hasn’t believed in God for a long time - not since his mom leaving, since Geraldine, since he watched his dad bleed in the middle of a winter morning on a checkered-tile floor.

But God if it isn’t a miracle when his dad takes a huge gasp of air and reveals his bulletproof vest.

He sprints out the door.

-

The huge man kicks through the door and Veronica feels just sheer terror. He’s advancing on them, moving the couch out of his way with a quick swipe of his hand, and Hermione’s hands can barely stay still enough to dig through Hiram’s drawers.

She pulls out a gun and she fires. Once, twice, thrice, four times. The man crumples to the ground and Veronica stares.

“Let’s have a drink,” the boss of the household says. She leaves, and in her peripheral vision, Veronica sees her sit down and pour herself a glass.

-

Alice begins to choke and attempt to scream through the hands tightening around her neck.  _ She’s choking, she’s choking, she’s choking, _ her face contorting into an expression of no emotion but pain, complete and utter pain. Hal doesn’t let his hands loosen even the tiniest bit and the projector is still blankly running in the background.

Betty hits him over the head with one of the fireplace tools and he crumples, releasing his hold on Alice. She grabs it from her daughter and beats him once more with it for good measure.

They stare at each other.

_ When did this become their family? _

-

Jughead is scared. He has never been this scared.

When his dad went to jail and he crawled into Archie’s bed like he did as a child, letting his best friend console him as he cried into his arms, pulling him as close as he could. When he got his Serpent jacket and went inside and kissed Betty like it was the end of the world, his whole fucking body trembling, hoping she wouldn’t notice.

With shaking hands, he dials Hiram Lodge’s phone number.

He doesn’t want to fight anymore.

-

Jughead throws one punch and goes down, feeling the punches and kicks hit him over, and over, and over again. He can barely feel anything anymore, just pain, just pain, just pain.

Some things the Serpents have done have been bad, yes. But Jughead has never watched them murder someone in cold blood - stamp the life out of them and watch with a sparkle in their eyes.

That’s the last thing he thinks, and sees, before he blacks out.

-

Archie and Betty have seen things. They have seen deaths and they have seen bloodshed. Archie watched his dad get shot, and Betty watched her dad almost kill her mom. Archie made deals with Hiram Lodge. Betty made deals with the black hood. Archie fucking rounded up a gang of teenage boys to go out and get into a fight, for God’s sakes, and Betty sacrificed her brother’s old roommate to get murdered.

Neither of them thought they would ever see FP Jones, holding the broken, bloodied body, eyes open and glazed over, of the boy they both love most in the entire world.

In the utter silence of the space between them, the only sound is the absolute shattering of the fragments left of three hearts, and the splintering of the ones of those around them.

**Author's Note:**

> title: when there's no one - carrie the musical. i thought it fit.
> 
> jughead bb please don't die ily im gay for u


End file.
